January:1. Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC by Joseph McCormick2. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks3. Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile by J. L. Bourne4. Steeldriver by Don Debrandt5. The Snake Charmer by Jamie James

March:10. Apocalypse of the Dead by Joe McKinney11. Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney12. The Ginseng Hunter by Jeff Talarigo13. White Bread by Aaron Bobrow-Strain14. World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler15. The Burning by Bentley Little

April:16. Absolution by Patrick Flanery17. The Yard by Alex Grecian18. For One More Day by Mitch Albom19. Haze by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

May:20. New York by Knight by Esther Friesner21. The Calypso Directive by Brian Andrews22. Through These Veins by Anne Marie Ruff23. A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore24. Watchmen by Alan Moore25. A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer26. The Pull of the Ocean by Jean-Claude Mourlevat

June:27. The Fever by Sonia Shah28. Urban Animals by Mireille Silcoff29. The Porcupine by Julian Barnes30. Fluke by Christopher Moore31. Evolutionary Wars by Charles Kingsley Levy32. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

July:33. The Disheveled Dictionary by Karen Elizabeth Gordon34. The Postcard Killers by James Patterson35. Thieves Like Us by Stephen Cole36. Dead on Town Line by Leslie Connor37. A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez38. Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore39. The Book of Dragons and Other Mythical Beasts by Joe Niggs40. Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez41. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman42. The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman43. The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman44. The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman45. The Sandman: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman46. The Sandman: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman47. The Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman

August:48. The Sandman: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman49. The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman50. The Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman51. The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman52. Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore53. The Red Hourglass by Gordon Grice

Edited: Jul 28, 2012, 8:05am

Haha, do they live in a flat area, then? Kath says Ohio is flat too, but I'm not buying it. I live in the 'hocking hills' and it's quite hilly here. In fact, I live in a valley, and all I see when I walk outside is the sides of hills. :)

Jul 28, 2012, 8:45am

Jul 28, 2012, 9:55am

Jul 28, 2012, 10:10am

That's Conkel's Hollow, in Rockbridge Ohio, which is right outside my town. In fact, kids from Rockbridge went to our high school, as the city itself is just a small 'village' of sorts. The hills you see is a definition of the area I live in, which apparently is a source of tourism. The roads are quite literally roller coaster-like, unlike mountainous regions where you go up for several minutes at a time and then back down again.

Jul 28, 2012, 1:22pm

There is a huge hill near my house on the way to the preschool my kids went to. You know how kids get sayings and words close to right, but not exactly right? They used to shout "Roller Toaster!" as we barreled down the road, which cracked me up to no end.

Jul 28, 2012, 4:28pm

Hi Sara! It's been a busy couple weeks. My car died, then a position opened up at my library, I applied and my car started working again, and everything was happy, until I called the library only to find out the positions were already taken, and when I went to go buy junk food to make myself feel happy I discovered my car didn't work again.

Jul 28, 2012, 11:09pm

Jul 29, 2012, 10:18am

Hi there, Micky! I find it odd that it is automatically assumed that I have included a Canadian corner in all of my threads. One of these days I'm going to turn it into a Crocodile and Cobra Corner and you're not going to know until you plonk down into it. :P

Sara: ...I am...intrigued. In a strictly scientific manner, of course.

Edited: Jul 29, 2012, 4:16pm

Fables and Reflections is another collection of short stories in the Sandman universe, the 2nd so far in the series. I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the first such collection, nor am I a huge fan of short stories to begin with, but this is big improvement over Dream Country because it's meatier, has more depth, and is more closely related to the overall story arch. In fact, I would consider The Song of Orpheus a must read for a deeper understanding of previous (and, I assume, future) stories.

This is another great addition to the Sandman mythos. Unlike volume 3, I definitely would not consider this one skippable.

Jul 29, 2012, 3:59pm

>24 Ape: Stephen, as long as I'm hanging around your thread, there will always be a Canadian corner. It's just how it works. And if you let loose a bunch of creepy crawlies in my corner I'll... have Mo stomp on them.

Jul 29, 2012, 8:20pm

I don't get to see any of the Olympics because I don't have cable (or any TV service of any form) and NBC is, of course, the devil. But I was in a hotel Friday so got to see the Opening Ceremonies. Danny Boyle did an awesome job.

Edited: Aug 17, 2012, 12:20pm

Tom: I actually didn't watch the opening ceremonies. I do have a temporary soccer addiction during the olympics though. You could never get me to watch the stuff any other time, but now I can watch just about anyone play and love it...

Sara: The house is awesome, and it's right down the road from Kroger. :P

Your stiffy, I've decided I want to study it for scentific purposes. *Pulls out scalpel* I'll need just a little sample...

Jul 30, 2012, 8:20am

Jul 30, 2012, 8:36am

Jul 30, 2012, 11:24am

The opening ceremony is the full extent of my Olympics watching. I do get excited about the idea of the Olympics: the traditions, the friendly competition, the comraderie, the fit men in tiny speedos, etc. But watching sports on TV is definitely the circle of hell I would end up in were I to, say, murder all the puppies, kittens, and ducklings in the world.

Jul 30, 2012, 11:27am

Ha! Yeah, I freely admit to watching American Football but beyond that I'm not a huge sports person. They somehow become completely enthralling during the olympics though. I mean, I watched badminton and field hockey, for crying out loud...

Jul 31, 2012, 6:00am

Jul 31, 2012, 6:57am

It has been mentioned for several books now that there is a missing member of the Endless, who abandoned his post and his responsibilities as overseer of his realm. In Brief Lives, Delirium sets out to search for her missing brother and somehow manages to convince Dream to help her in her quest.

This one is interesting. Gaiman uses a much more straightforward plot to explore the complexities of the endless and put to bed the idea that they are all as one-dimensional as their names and roles might suggest. Delirium, a manic character that I adore for her complete and utter absurdity, was at one time Delight before 'changing,' and now we see Destruction making the case that the Endless have less purpose than they think, as he has been absent for 300 years and humans are just as destructive as ever.

The ending of the book has me on edge. Dream is in a mental state we have never seen him before and you get the feeling big things are coming. We are left pondering our fleeting existence, our ever-changing nature, and whether or not there is any real reason for the Endless to exist at all as anything other than sentinels, and we do it with a smile on our face having giggled so much at Delirium's dialogue.

Aug 2, 2012, 11:04am

Aug 2, 2012, 1:16pm

Ooooooh! That does look interesting. And I love the cover too! I'm CRAVING some nonficton after this little graphic novel marathon I've got going on, as soon as I'm done with the Sandman series I'm totally diving into something of that nature. I might even skip the Christopher Moore novel in favor of some nonfiction. Not sure though.

Aug 2, 2012, 4:48pm

Joe: Mine is probably Death too...maybe...sort of. Ack, all the characters are great, it's hard to choose! :)

Nora: You are too optimistic. If I talk to them they'll realize how, errrr, eccentric I am, and then they won't hire me because they'll think I'll scare the patrons. Not true, of course, I rarely scare people...I just make them a little nervous and apprehensive. ;)

Aug 2, 2012, 9:02pm

Aug 2, 2012, 9:42pm

Worlds' End is a collection of short stories within the Sandman universe. Again. It is such a collection of short stories that even some of the short stories have short stories in them. Yeah really.

This is the 3rd collection like this out of 8 volumes so far, and I must say I continue to find them somewhat irritating. This one is has a more fluid narrative however, involving a man and a woman who crash their car during a freakish snow storm during summer and take refuge in an inn, one filled with strange people from unheard-of places who have found themselves in the same situation.

The short stories themselves are perfectly fine, it's just ill-timed. After the events of the past novel I was desperately looking forward to continuing the story, so this felt like little more than an agonizingly unpleasant speed bump. I might have enjoyed them at any other time, but I was mostly just fuming from having to read through petty stupid pointless stories when important stuff was happening in the main story.

I can't say for sure now, but I'm afraid this one isn't skippable either. Though I can't be sure yet, the reason behind the inn and why so many have found themselves stranded in it seems to be relative to the story. The ending is quite alarming, and once again you suspect really big things are happening right on the cusp of your vision, but shrouded in too much mystery for me to judge its importance.

I wish Gaiman had come up with a better way to handle the 'reality storm.' It's an interested idea, I liked it, but I just didn't want to read though irrelevant short stories that, while technically good, were mostly just annoying as a result of poor timing.

Aug 2, 2012, 11:02pm

Aug 3, 2012, 6:07am

Oh yes. Many people don't realize the part was actually played by a drunken dwarf who is currently serving time for setting fire to a casino out of retaliation when they banned him from the building after he was caught streaking through the lobby. It's true, I wouldn't make something like that up now would I? So you're still not innocent. :P

Aug 3, 2012, 4:37pm

Hi Stephen I am back from a quick trip and thought I would wander over here and keep Mickey company in the Canadian Corner. I love all the reviews of the Sandman series, there's talk about a group read of the series next year over at the 2013 Category Challenge so I am holding off reading any more until then.

Aug 3, 2012, 9:34pm

Edited: Aug 3, 2012, 9:44pm

Yep, it's true. I would recommend Old Man's Cave as a demonstration of how hilly the area is, but it has become such a touristy place that the whole point of the place has become redundant. It's supposed to be a park of wilderness trails, but they are so packed with hikers that all you really see is masses of people. At least, that was my sister's experience when she went last year. The pictures had more people per frame than you would see walking down main street in the middle of town. :P

Aug 3, 2012, 10:24pm

The Group Read was mentioned on someone's thread and a few of us piped up and said we were interested, but no definite plans yet, but I am sure it will get put together somehow as there are a number of Gaiman fans over there.

Aug 4, 2012, 7:57am

Aug 4, 2012, 11:11am

Hey Stephen! I'm not sure I want to dip my toes into the Neil Gaiman graphics again. I was completely turned off by Preludes & Nocturnes (scared me, kept all the lights on, shivered my timbers) yet you seem to like some of them. Should I give them a second chance?

Edited: Aug 4, 2012, 1:49pm

Well, I have a taste for 'shiver-your-timbers' writing, so I might not be a good one to ask. :P

I can say that, after the first one, the books mellow out a bit. The art isn't nearly as vivid and the subject matter isn't quite as dark. Not that there isn't plenty of scary/creepy stories (The Corinthian in book 2, for example), but the first one is more extreme than the later books. Pity, I prefer creepy. :P

Aug 5, 2012, 11:41am

The Kindly Ones is undoubtedly the best book in the Sandman series so far. (Yes, I know I've said that several times now, but it's really true this time!) Many of the events throughout the series are culminating into an epic struggle between Dream and The Furies, which results in the most intense, profound, and endearing plot to date. Morpheus seems more human than ever, and though he has faced many a trial in the past this is more emotionally charged than anything Gaiman has presented to date. A testament to the continual improvement of his writing.

The art direction for this book is interesting. It uses a very simple and rather cartoonish style and colored with somewhat flatly with bright, vibrant colors. It's very different and the book has a completely different feel than previous ones, and at first I wasn't a big fan of it. However, though I'm not sure it is the best fit for the atmosphere created by the story, the style grew on me with time and I think I might actually prefer it over what has been done in the past several books.

This deep into the series I really can't say a whole lot more in my review other than that I have enjoyed the experience thus far and I look forward to seeing how everything is wrapped up in the end.

Aug 5, 2012, 1:40pm

Ha! Exactly.

You know, most students loved it, but I always had one or two in each class who would bitch about it in my evaluations, usually saying that they signed up to learn Greek myths, not modern interpretations of them. I always felt that I had failed those poor souls some how, since they clearly left the class without grasping the fundamental truth about mythology.

Aug 5, 2012, 2:01pm

Indeed, are there any works on mythology that aren't a 'modern interpretation,' or at least modern when they were written, regardless of how early?

You would be more familiar with this than I, of course, but it was my understanding that there was never a definitive 'beginning' or original work on Greek mythology, but rather a collection of ever-changing tales that were eventually written down much later...

Aug 5, 2012, 2:21pm

That's pretty much right - our earliest extant stuff dealing with mythology is, well, Homer, and 'he' was writing down a version of long-lived oral tales. The big thing I used to try to get my students to understand is that when myth stops changing and evolving, it dies. So it's okay to have various versions of myths and, in fact, the Greeks and Romans did it all the time.

Aug 5, 2012, 2:35pm

The Kindly Ones is a really good one, Stephen. Glad you enjoyed it. How cool that Amber used it in teaching a Mythology class!

You've undoubtedly got enough Sandman going on right now(!), but I found The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender, which has commentary on and interviews with Gaiman for each book, very helpful in understanding some of the complex allusions in the series, and connections between different parts. Some day you may want to take a peek at it, and I would think it would be useful in a group read.

Aug 5, 2012, 4:16pm

Amber: Wow, I didn't even know Homer was the earliest. I find it sad that some people fail to grasp the concept that a myth is basically defined by the retelling, and the retelling naturally changes with the story teller.

I think mythology was beautifully demonstrated in one of the books, although I've forgotten which one it was. It was a prologue at the beginning of, I think, book 3, and it was the story about the elder African retelling the story of the lady who fell in love with Morpheus. It just seemed like a perfect representation of mythology in general.

Joe: Thanks for the recommendation. There is no question I didn't pick up on a lot of the subtleties. I haven't been rushing, exactly, but I have been setting a blistering pace, and sometimes between blocks I would catch something in the image from the last piece that I nearly skipped over, not to mention all the mythological references that I know I'm not getting and all the other little things going on and being hinted at.

Aug 6, 2012, 4:21pm

Aug 6, 2012, 5:23pm

What an excellent game! Heartbreaking for Canadian fans in the final seconds but I have to say the Canadian team overcame a lot as underdogs to push the US team - ranked #1 in the world - as much as they did, so I am truly proud of our Canadian team and how well they have done in these games. Congrats to the US team on a win earned.

Aug 7, 2012, 8:36am

The Wake is the final volume in original Sandman series, although it feels more like an epilogue than a conclusion. The thing that stood out most to me is the art in the first few books. Oh my goodness it's stunning! It's deliciously detailed, fittingly dark and gloomy, and I absolutely loved it. It made it much more difficult to read when I spent so much time ogling over the art.

The ending is rather unexciting, however. Though the final story is far from unimportant, it is a lengthy yarn twice as long as it needs to be and made the ending of the series feel like it was dragging a bit. As much as I enjoyed the nine volumes leading up to this, I found myself counting the pages and anticipating the ending with grim determination simply because of the last two short stories.

The series as a whole is quite an incredible one. In a genre that for decades was perceived as something for children with simplistic and shallow plots that robotically conformed to the good vs. evil theme, Neil Gaiman and a few others in the 80's finally broke the mould and transcended the genre, demonstrating that comic books could be something more than previously thought. I don't think I will ever see anything redeeming about spandex-wearing super heroes, other than their cultural significance, but it is things like The Sandman series that give the graphic format validity for me.

Aug 7, 2012, 1:48pm

Aug 7, 2012, 6:44pm

Endless Nights is a bonus volume in the Sandman Series with 7 short stories, 1 for each member of the Endless. The book is printed on a super-glossy paper that makes the images really pop off the page. The colors are extremely bright and vibrant and the book looks beautiful, there is a myriad of artists with a variety of styles but all of them looked really good. Even the simplistically-drawn books were fun to look at. I don't know why this method isn't used more, unless it's really expensive. The images were so glossy I had to sit at just the right angle to my light source due to the glare.

The stories themselves were hit-and-miss for me. Some seemed to embody the personalities of their subject perfectly, for example Delirium's was crazy, Dream's was fantastical and tragic, and Death's had an intriguing idea; however I was less enthusiastic about a couple of them. Despair's wasn't all the interesting and for all the cool things that could have been done with Destruction the story provided was only just okay.

Overall I enjoyed the collection. If you like the Sandman series you should definitely look into this, as it does give some insight into the rest of the family. It almost makes me wish there was a full series (or at least a volume) for each member of the Endless. For now, however, we'll just have to be satisfied with this.

Aug 7, 2012, 6:47pm

Hurray! It's done! It's over! I liked the Sandman series and all, but after 11 books, I am so ready for something without pictures. I'll probably read the Christopher Moore novel like I said I wouldn't, but I might change my mind.

Aug 8, 2012, 9:43am

Aug 8, 2012, 9:44am

Aug 8, 2012, 9:47am

Oh yes, I'm very familiar with the zombie running events. I'm surprised how popular they are, actually. Zombies are becoming so trendy I'm going to have to stop liking them just to be a nonconformist. :P

Aug 8, 2012, 9:51am

Way to go, Stephen! You're the first person I've heard of that read Sandman straight through like that. I can well imagine you're ready for a change of fare, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. Gaiman's supposedly working on a new one.

Aug 8, 2012, 9:57am

Yeah, it's a problem I have. The reason I don't like reading series as they are being released is I prefer to read them consecutively after the series is finished, so those never-ending series are practically off-limits for me. I'd be curious about a new entry to the series, it being so long since the original series came out an all. I tend to think that means the author has had time to dwell on things a bit, instead of rushing out new issues as fast as possible, which rarely bodes well...

Aug 11, 2012, 2:24am

Aug 11, 2012, 6:08am

Richard: Why thank you. I see it has 20 posts in the first 6 hours it was up, however... o.O

Micky: Ha, yeah, I've heard of that. I really need to consider trying that (not the app, but the concept.) Katie has said that she motivates herself while running by pretending she is being chased by zombies. Problem is, I'd probably take refuge from the imaginary zombies by taking refuge in a donut shop. (And by donut shop I mean my microwave stand where the poptarts are.)

Hi Stasia! Moderate doses of my thread is very sensible and responsible of you.

Aug 11, 2012, 9:21am

Yep! I have the Zombies, Run! app. I like it a lot. I've found that my best combo for running, tho, is whatever music I'm in the mood for (that has a not super slow beat) plus Jeopardy. I totes think of answers and kind of forget that I'm running, lol. I suppose other game shows would work to, if they're rapid fire enough.

Aug 12, 2012, 9:03pm

Aug 13, 2012, 2:53am

Aug 13, 2012, 9:21am

I love those images. The dinosaur is actually a Velociraptor, but in this case it's a philosoraptor, and they are usually depicted contemplating deep philosophical ponderings. Here's a big collection of them. :)

Edited: Aug 13, 2012, 10:10am

Oh, it's all Richard's fault, I've liked the books that I've found on his thread. I even gave Montana 1948 a 5-star rating. He just doesn't seem to approve of my taste in fiction. It's all on him, obviously. :P

Aug 14, 2012, 11:29pm

Aug 15, 2012, 5:37am

Aug 15, 2012, 7:15am

Whew! Back from In-Law Hell, so I thought I'd drop in to see what I've missed. So glad you explained why the dinosaur is there - I never would have figure that one out. Coyote Blue is probably my least favorite Moore book, but I still loved it...

Aug 15, 2012, 7:23am

Sam Hunter has been on the run since he was a teenagers. He grew up as Sam Hunts Alone, a skeptic of his own traditions on a Crow Indian reservation, where he finds himself ironically longing for the lifestyle lived by the people on the television show Bonanza. After a tragic accident involving a dam and a spare tire Sam runs from the law, and becomes an incredibly successful insurance salesperson. Until one day his heritage comes crashing around his ears in the form of the kamikaze tornado-on-legs trickster god, Coyote.

There are a lot of jabs taken at Native American culture here, and initially I thought Moore was being very disrespectful, but of course by the end the atmosphere changes and it becomes a charming representation of a mythology we know little about anyway. Of course Christopher Moore is going to poke fun at people, that's what he does, but he always has more to tell than just jokes and this book is no different.

The story itself is a ridiculously cliche one. Man falls in love with woman upon seeing her, woman is in danger before man knows her at all, man rescues her, and so forth. It's okay though, Moore is funny so I forgive him. Besides, how can you not like a book where Minty Fresh makes an appearance?

Aug 15, 2012, 11:23am

Hi Stephen! Love Christopher Moore and very nice review. Also not top if my list for him, but a good read nonetheless. We are finally getting hit with beastly hot summer weather everyone else has had. Ugh.

Aug 16, 2012, 10:44am

Aug 16, 2012, 1:37pm

Just following along with all the conversations, Stephen. I was going to say a nice PG thread you have so far, but then I saw the zombie Snow White with cleavage so I guess I'll have to bump it up a rating. :)

Aug 16, 2012, 11:30pm

Aug 16, 2012, 11:42pm

delurking to say....you remember those few books you recommended to me an age ago....and that I could never seem to nab at the library...well, I just bought The Cobra Event by Richard Preston for $1 online. YAY thats half of what it would have cost me to reserve it at the library....hence my resistance in reserves. All I have to do now is collect it :)

Aug 17, 2012, 5:24am

Micky: Yes ma'am! *Disappears into the kitchen for several minutes, then returns with a half-eaten pack of oreos.*

Megan: Your library charges to reserve books? Ouchie! Well I'm glad you found the book on the cheap, and I hope you like it when you eventually in the probably-distant future get around to reading it. :D

Aug 19, 2012, 3:40pm

Aug 19, 2012, 4:34pm

>203 Ape: lol that reminds me of when I first met my lovely partner for life, and loving father of my children. He never dances. Except this one time when he had had a few drinks...and we were out to see a band. He was really getting into the music, and just couldnt hold back any more. He ran up to dance, and just as he got there and had jumped up in the air- the music stopped. I still remember the look of dejection on his face when he was left with 2 feet of air under him, and no music to drop to! haha, I almost wet myself laughing. It was so funny.

Aug 20, 2012, 2:34pm

Aug 20, 2012, 2:54pm

Aug 20, 2012, 3:29pm

Hello there! Myself, I love to dance and I am not bad at it either. The singer formerly known as Prince even asked me to dance at his nightclub Graffiti in Mpls back in the day. He is short, but boy can he move!

Aug 20, 2012, 5:03pm

Aug 20, 2012, 5:06pm

Aug 20, 2012, 10:44pm

Wow, disappear from your tread for two weeks and I find myself wading through a Gaiman Sandman discussion, a zombified Snowwhite - cool pic by the way! - quickly breezing through the discussion on servitude and sliding right into space goblins..... Now, how the heck did that happen?!?!?

Aug 20, 2012, 11:02pm

Aug 21, 2012, 1:05am

Yup. I did!! *grins from ear to ear* Funny thing was I didn't figure out who he was until we got out on the dance floor and his body guard came with us which made me take a closer look and then it was all I could do keep calm and try to be nonchalant. Hah!

Aug 21, 2012, 11:15am

Aug 21, 2012, 11:36am

Kim: Thanks! I won't be doing anything special, which is probably why I forgot it. :P...unless I go to Dollar Tree and buy 4 books for $4...

I can post a picture of Prince's penis-guitar if you want. ;) The guitar itself didn't look very penis-like, it just had these long tentacle-like things shooting out of it. At one point a light was lit in front of him so that it cast a HUGE shadow behind him of his silhouette, and the tentacle-thing was pointing out from his pelvis. It's difficult to imagine that it wasn't intentional, I mean, it was just too perfect.

Aug 21, 2012, 12:03pm

Edited: Aug 21, 2012, 12:16pm

It does, I was recalling the things at the bottom but upon seeing the pictures I realize it was that he was, errr, 'devil tail' he was gripping. (Keep in mind when you watched it live, his hand was moving up and down the fretboard to play the song...)

Edited: Aug 21, 2012, 12:27pm

Aug 21, 2012, 2:14pm

'Walking hormone' is an apt description of him, I think. Also, the guitar is in the shape of the symbol he used as his name (when he was referred to as 'The Artist Formerly Known As Prince'). It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the shadow business was planned.

Aug 21, 2012, 5:01pm

Edited: Aug 22, 2012, 6:14am

The Red Hourglass is a naturalist's musings on the predatory creatures he has lived his whole life surrounded by. It is one of those 'science' books that doesn't feel weighed down by tedious, excessive details that can deter many people from exploring topics they might not normally read. In fact, it almost feels like you are reading a journal by the author, one where the writer's personality is on display and makes you feel like he is talking to you personally.

That is not to say that there is any lack of information to be found here. Gordon Grice has a wealth of knowledge to offer, but he presents it in way that feels approachable, due in large part because they are his own observations instead of recounts of other people's work. The man's passion is apparent, and it is always a joy to see that in a person's writing.

Alas, if the greatest flaw of a scientist is their tendency to skew facts in their favor, the naturalist's is their tendency to exaggerate. The fish was this big, and the swarm of stag beetles ate the boat, and when we sank a dolphin saved us from the murky, fungal pond water. I admit to raising my eyebrow skeptically while reading some of the stories Grice has to tell, but considering the wondrousness of nature, especially to those who choose to be observant, it might be a fault of my own to question so readily.

Regardless, The Red Hourglass was one of those natural history/science that is both informative and fun to read, and it always makes me happy when I stumble upon a book like this.

Aug 23, 2012, 3:05pm

Aug 23, 2012, 4:19pm

You have MORE *house* spiders than us Murrikins do, Micky, cause it's always so durned cold in them thar moose-infested nawth woods. Though how spiders manage to find corners to hide in in them igloos...?

Aug 23, 2012, 7:43pm

Aug 23, 2012, 9:12pm

249: Yeah, but you can also ask people to help you apply sunscreen... ;)

250: Allegedly. It's one of those random internet factoids, it's hard to say how true it is. I know I've woken up freaking the heck out because I felt 'something' scurring across my face/arm/leg, so....

251: See, I read it was something like 10, but either way it doesn't sound pleasant.

252: Americans rarely eat anything that isn't deep fried or smothered in cheese or gravy, even if by accident. So...nope! :P

253: I wonder if that applies to everything else that isn't in Canada. Like monkeys.

254: Yeah! And because it's so cold, they are the extra-frightening hairy variety.

Aug 23, 2012, 9:48pm

Edited: Aug 24, 2012, 1:40am

But see the real question is who bothered to stay up all night and count the spider inhalations in the first place? Yeah, my first job out of college was counting nocturnally ingested arachnoids...lol.

Aug 24, 2012, 7:13am

Nora: *Gasp* I knew it! It's all Canada's fault dinosaurs are extinct! And that unicorns are endangered! Grrrr!

Kim: Let's of scientist bother to do all kinds of weird things in the name of science. You can read about those in Mary Roach's books, in fact. :) It is an interesting question, however, how an exact number can be derived. It would vary greatly based on numerous factors. Location, living conditions, sleeping position, bed type, whether or not a person sleeps with their mouth open, etc.